THE SAINT
Santa Rita’s real name was Margherita Lotti and she was born between 1371 and 1381 in Roccaporena, a few kilometers from Cascia. About her Her life as a mother and wife was exemplary of her, until the murder of her husband, Paolo di Ferdinando di Mancino, and the death of her children, tragic moments in her existence after which Rita took refuge in prayer. It is in this moment that she must have strongly developed the desire to elevate her love for her to another level, to another husband: Christ.
At about the age of 36, Rita knocked on the door of the Monastery of St. Mary Magdalene. Having overcome the thousand difficulties, with the help of her prayer to her three protectors, Saint Augustine, Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and Saint John the Baptist, she finally, as reported by historians, fulfilled her wish.
Many miracles attributed to her since 1457, when they began to be reported in the Codex miraculorum (the Code of Miracles). Among these, we find the so-called maxime, or the most extraordinary: the miracle of a blind man who regained his sight.
Her beatification process began in 1626 and ended only in 1900, when, on May 24, Leo XIII proclaimed Margaret of Cascia a saint. The body, since 18 May 1947, has rested in the Basilica dedicated to her in Cascia, inside the silver and crystal urn made in 1930. Medical investigations have ascertained the presence of a bony sore (osteomyelitis) on the forehead, proving the existence of the stigmata, a central episode in his hagiography.
